A survey of Australian TV audiences' views on climate change

This report documents the findings of a national survey of TV audiences’ views on climate change in Australia. The survey sought to evaluate the receptiveness that Australian television audiences have for adding climate change information to weather segments of news bulletins.

The findings of the survey revealed that:

87.8% of respondents were interested in learning about the impacts of climate change in a weather bulletin.

84.65% of respondents indicated they would continue watching their main news program if it started presenting information on climate change.

If other channels presented information on climate change when a viewer’s main channel did not, 57.43% of the audiences said they would switch their news program.

Viewers reported that extreme weather was the most important kind of information they were interested in, with the top five being: powerful storms, heatwaves, floods, bushfires and tropical cyclones.

Local climate projections and historical data were favoured over national and global data for future projections and for historical information.